Since the news crashed in about how Haswell would suffer from Spectre and Meltdown, I knew that it's time for a new compact powerful tower.
After contemplating on how to have an anything-goes PC, my finalized spec came out as:
Motherboard: X299E-ITX/AC <- because 64GB ram (16GB cannot handle my 200 Chrome tabs)
CPU: Intel Core i7 7800X <- cause it's the cheapest thing to go with the board
RAM: Kingston HyperX Impact DDR4 SODIMM 4 x 16GB @ 2400Mhz
Cooling: be quiet! Silent Loop 240 <- Low profile block and expandable
Storage: Toshiba NVMe SSD XG4 1TB <- the price was $200 for new OEM (windows 10 was even installed unactivated), so why not
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 980 Ti Reference <- decided to hold out for 2080, so these will have to do for now
PSU: Silverstone SX-800LTI <- Kinda no-brainer for this setup
Riser: Ameri-rack Bifurcated Riser and single Riser
Case: Makerbeam Starter Kit: 10x10 anodized extrusions <- This is the fun part cause I want to have the lowest displacement possible, so there is no other way but to make one
So first, I had to build a frame to hold all the components. These are the ingredients:
Abracadabra!
I actually had to whipped up some sketching in AutoCAD, but unfortunately I had accidentally permanently deleted the drawing T_T
I used the 200mm, 150mm, 300mm, 40mm bars and the overall dimension can be roughly estimated:
Height: 10 + 300 + 10 + 40 + 10 = 370mm
Width: 10 + 150 + 10 = 170mm
Depth: 200mm
H x W x D = 370 x 170 x 200
Let's try to stuff everything into the frame
Actually doesn't look that bigger than my SE one build if I were to put it upright. I can actually not use the top displacement to decrease the height by 50mm. But I want to route the cable to one side instead of having them hanging
Size compare against my keyboard
Some more views:
Front (?) view
I really need to improve my cabling skill T_T
The spacing between the two cards and the radiator looks decent. Let's hope that the thermal is fine.
If the two cards were to be converted to single slot, or just one card is used, I could even fit another radiator in the other side
Left (?) view
Right (?) view
The fans came with the Silent Loop 240 were a little bit too thick, so I replace them with the silverstone FN123 fans. The colors of the FN121 and Noctua A12x15 were too ... ergh... Will look into the Cooler Master Xtraflo 120
Back (?) view
The PSU have its own side for air intake. I had to print out a bracket to fix the PSU to the frame
Top view
The two GPUs are fixed to the frame with screws at two points on their pci brackets
Bottom view
The bottom of the GPUs are also fixed with thumb screws on their holes for rack mounting. With three point mounting like this, the GPUs are rock solid in place
Let's fire it up and pray!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
But SLI is not working yet, need to look into this -_-
Next steps on the list
- Get SLI to work. The original driver of windows actually showed the SLI option in the Nvidia setting, but the Windows 10 reinstalled the driver and the option disappeared
- Redraw the sketch I deleted T_T, then draw the side panels and send to Ponoko for laser cut. I am thinking wood would be classy
Let me know what you think about this build
After contemplating on how to have an anything-goes PC, my finalized spec came out as:
Motherboard: X299E-ITX/AC <- because 64GB ram (16GB cannot handle my 200 Chrome tabs)
CPU: Intel Core i7 7800X <- cause it's the cheapest thing to go with the board
RAM: Kingston HyperX Impact DDR4 SODIMM 4 x 16GB @ 2400Mhz
Cooling: be quiet! Silent Loop 240 <- Low profile block and expandable
Storage: Toshiba NVMe SSD XG4 1TB <- the price was $200 for new OEM (windows 10 was even installed unactivated), so why not
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 980 Ti Reference <- decided to hold out for 2080, so these will have to do for now
PSU: Silverstone SX-800LTI <- Kinda no-brainer for this setup
Riser: Ameri-rack Bifurcated Riser and single Riser
Case: Makerbeam Starter Kit: 10x10 anodized extrusions <- This is the fun part cause I want to have the lowest displacement possible, so there is no other way but to make one
So first, I had to build a frame to hold all the components. These are the ingredients:
Abracadabra!
I actually had to whipped up some sketching in AutoCAD, but unfortunately I had accidentally permanently deleted the drawing T_T
I used the 200mm, 150mm, 300mm, 40mm bars and the overall dimension can be roughly estimated:
Height: 10 + 300 + 10 + 40 + 10 = 370mm
Width: 10 + 150 + 10 = 170mm
Depth: 200mm
H x W x D = 370 x 170 x 200
Let's try to stuff everything into the frame
Actually doesn't look that bigger than my SE one build if I were to put it upright. I can actually not use the top displacement to decrease the height by 50mm. But I want to route the cable to one side instead of having them hanging
Size compare against my keyboard
Some more views:
Front (?) view
I really need to improve my cabling skill T_T
The spacing between the two cards and the radiator looks decent. Let's hope that the thermal is fine.
If the two cards were to be converted to single slot, or just one card is used, I could even fit another radiator in the other side
Left (?) view
Right (?) view
The fans came with the Silent Loop 240 were a little bit too thick, so I replace them with the silverstone FN123 fans. The colors of the FN121 and Noctua A12x15 were too ... ergh... Will look into the Cooler Master Xtraflo 120
Back (?) view
The PSU have its own side for air intake. I had to print out a bracket to fix the PSU to the frame
Top view
The two GPUs are fixed to the frame with screws at two points on their pci brackets
Bottom view
The bottom of the GPUs are also fixed with thumb screws on their holes for rack mounting. With three point mounting like this, the GPUs are rock solid in place
Let's fire it up and pray!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
But SLI is not working yet, need to look into this -_-
Next steps on the list
- Get SLI to work. The original driver of windows actually showed the SLI option in the Nvidia setting, but the Windows 10 reinstalled the driver and the option disappeared
- Redraw the sketch I deleted T_T, then draw the side panels and send to Ponoko for laser cut. I am thinking wood would be classy
Let me know what you think about this build
